LONDON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- London party planners say they are being hit hard this year because banks and other major companies aren't throwing lavish staff holiday parties.
Simon Mitchell, managing director of Impulse Events, told The Guardian reservations for holiday events are down 30 percent from 2007. Those parties that are being planned have budgets 20 to 50 percent lower per head.
In 2008, many firms simply did not have the money for holiday festivities. This year, the problem is more one of image.
"We're still in the middle of a savaging," David Buik of BCG Partners said. "If our company is anything to go by, there will be smaller, surreptitious little parties done in a personal manner. We're not having a great big jamboree, there will be five of us in a little Italian, Il Bordello, in Wapping, very low-key."
Party planners in the provinces are having a better season than those in London because many large companies are allowing smaller units and regional offices to make their own decisions on holiday parties. In London, Mitchell and some of his counterparts have started a "Say Thank You at Christmas" campaign to convince companies parties are a just reward for back-office employees who have toiled anonymously all year.
